Martha Sugalski's decision to leave WESH-Channel 2 -- and evidently head to another station in town -- prompted me to look for context from Carole Nelson, Orlando's trailblazing anchorwoman. Nelson started at WFTV-Channel 9, moved to Channel 6, then returned to WFTV in a local career that ran from 1976 to 1990.

Nelson did not disappoint. She fired off an email with names and details from the past.

I wanted to share this look at Orlando TV history. Here's how Carole Nelson tells it:

"When I made the move [from 9 to 6] it made the top story on the local page along with a picture. It was a nerve-wracking time in my career. Other newsroom reporters and anchors were very unhappy with Elden Hale, the news director, who had replaced Bob Jordan in one of his many moves. We all thought that Elden was taking the station in the wrong direction.

"[WFTV General Manager] Walter Windsor and the Magid consultants wanted me to talk to him. Then the station made a big mistake and forgot to send me a registered letter stating that the station wanted to pick up my option for another year. (The station had the option each year on my contract; I did not).

"When the deadline passed, my agent and I said, 'Well, what next?' If it had not been for Elden Hale, I would have simply signed and not asked anything. Instead, my agent contacted Channel 6 telling them I was a free agent. [News director] Bill Bauman and General Manager Sandy Davey jumped at the opportunity.

"Walter refused to talk to an agent and I was not talking to Walter directly. Just before I drove to Channel 6 to sign, Walter called in me, saying in effect, 'You have us over a barrel over a clerical mistake. However, the ball is in your court.'

"The next words I remember distinctly: 'What is it you want and I will get the board to OK it?' I told him it was the principle, and even if he offered me more money, I had made a commitment [to Channel 6] and I did it for a sound reason. I signed.

"To Walter's credit -- this never happens -- he allowed me to say goodbye on air at both the noon and 6 p.m. During the noon show he interrupted to come on the news set, thank me for my years at Channel 9 and wish me well. (Class act!)

"Of course, Channel 6 believed once I moved, the ratings would come with me. They did not. At least they did not at first. Then in 1986 when my contract was up at Channel 6 and they wanted me to sign a new one, Bob Jordan called me. He arranged a secret meeting at a pizza place in Eustis. I was shocked.

"The new general manager, Cliff Conley, was there as well as Bob Jordan, who by then had returned to Channel 9. They made me an unbelievable offer. The first contract period was a year and a half with a salary of $140,000 a year. They asked me if I wanted to be news director as well (Bob Jordan was both anchor and news director.)

"I wondered for years why the offer. Later a Magid executive told me that research showed Channel 6 was about to take over the top spot at 6 and noon. We had edged closer. Channel 9 had taken the top spot in November 1976 and never lost it, so they didn't want to lose it. Interestingly, the station has overall stayed No. 1 since 1976.

"In 1989 I was fired. The station never knew what to do with me when I returned. The plan had been that I would replace Marla [Weech] at 6 and 11. There was a huge backlash with people basically saying, 'Poor Marla, don't take the job from her. She deserves it. That 'bitch' left you once before.'

"This is the kind of soap-opera thinking viewers can engage in. [Sentinel TV critic] Greg Dawson hadn't helped because he wrote in his columns that Marla was a poor excuse for an anchor and 'it was time for the queen to take back the throne.' I have never let Greg forget it although, of course, he meant me no harm.

"I went on to Seattle. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I taught full time at the Art Institute of Seattle and did talk radio for KVI; it was the No. 1 station in Seattle at the time.

"Frankly, I had become tired of 'Carole Nelson.' I wanted to prove what I could do on my own. Sometimes the real story gets lost. I always loved interviewing on radio and TV more than reading the news.

"I did talk radio in Melbourne right up to 2008 when the station went bankrupt, and I got married and moved to Deltona. That is my story and I am sticking to it."